WWW- [playfuls.com]- Miss USA Tara Conner, who acknowledged she started drinking at age 14, left the Caron Foundation rehab facility Jan. 21 where she spent 31 days in treatment. Miss USA Tara Conner said she recognized she suffered “from the disease of alcoholism and addition” while in rehab in Pennsylvania, but insisted she was never drunk while taking part in any pageants.
“I didn’t think I had any kind of issue going into rehab,” Conner told People magazine. “But I’ve realized I do have an issue. I suffer from the disease of alcoholism and addiction.”
In December after she breached her contract with the Miss USA organization through debauchery, including underage drinking and hard partying, Donald Trump gave her a second chance under the condition she treated herself.
“I’ve always been a believer in second chances,” Trump has said of Conner, who allegedly was found to be engaging in underage drinking prior to her birthday last year. “Tara is good person. Tara has tried hard. Tara is going to be given a second chance.”
“My life has completely changed,” she said in her interview. “I’m a completely different person out of rehab. Before I entered rehab I hardly knew who I was. I felt like I was floating and I just needed someone to pull me down.”
“I have done cocaine, yeah,” Conner told NBCs “Today”‘s interviewer Matt Lauer in her first interview since completing 31 days in rehab.
“I will not deny that I have witnessed some abuse, but out of respect for my family … it’s something I would like to speak with my family about first,” Conner told NBC television’s “Today” show. “Later on, maybe I’ll feel more comfortable about speaking on these topics, but right now not so much.”
“I’m sure [witnessing abuse] could have played a part in [later alcoholism and addictive behaviour],” said Conner.
“Luckily the great thing about getting everything out and being completely open and honest about things, it frees me from it. So the more I get it off my chest, the better I feel about myself,” she said.
Conner also said she would not pose nude in Playboy magazine as some reporters have suggested. The full interview will be aired on Saturday on “Dateline NBC.”
The Playboy rumors were also denied by Miss USA organization: “There was as a conversation between with Mr. Trump and Playboy, but this is not something that Tara wants to do at this point in time. She feels it is inappropriate,” their spokeswoman said. Apparently, Conner has turned down a reported $1 million offer from Playboy to pose in the magazine.
PR Inside quoted Tara Conner as saying: “(Before rehab) I thought I needed to be around people, that I needed that acceptance. Cocaine was one of the drugs that I did use. It’s hard to look back at that. I was an equal-opportunity (user) – I would try anything once.” And now Conner is keen to get back to her pageant duties. She added, “I just can’t wait to get back to work, ‘I’m Miss USA, my name is Tara Conner, and I’m happy to meet you,’ you know? Life’s good.”
“She is not allowed to go to clubs anymore … and she has a lot of new rules for going out,” a source told the NYP. A spokesperson for the Miss USA organization told the newspaper, “Plans to move to a bigger apartment with a chaperone have been in the works for months, and Tara is free to go wherever she wants.”